1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an endoscope system that is used during surgery to resect a tumor, such as cancer, or for treatment after the surgery.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, laparoscopic surgery to perform an operation using a laparoscope has been drawing attention (refer to JP2000-139947A). For example, in surgery to resect cancer of the large intestine using a laparoscope, the laparoscope and surgical treatment tools are inserted into an abdominal cavity through a trocar that has been pierced into the abdomen of the patient. Then, the abdominal cavity is inflated with pneumoperitoneum gas made of carbon dioxide, and an image of the abdominal cavity is displayed on a monitor. Then, the operator resects a primary tumor in the large intestine while observing the image of the abdominal cavity displayed on the monitor. Thereafter, portions of the large intestine separated by the resection of the primary tumor are sutured using an automatic suturing device or the like.
After surgery, in a normal case, in the course of normal wound healing after suturing, activation of fibroblasts in tissues occurs after two or three days from the suturing, and fusion is completed in approximately seven days. However, if fusion is inhibited by several factors during the fusion between the tissues, the fusion between the tissues does not sufficiently occur. In this case, suture failure may occur in which a part or the entire suture portion dissociates. When the suture failure occurs, a significant reduction in the quality of life (QQL) occurs. Therefore, it is important to detect the suture failure and take preemptive measures against the suture failure (refer to Tsujinaka Shingo et al, “Prevention and measures of suture failure after rectal cancer surgery”, [online], [Searched on Oct. 10, 2012], Internet <URL:1352350875709_0>).
For the detection of suture failure, a doctor performs visual diagnosis and contact diagnosis, such as “presence or absence of sustained fever”, “presence or absence of blood volume reduction”, “presence or absence of shock due to reduction in circulating blood volume due to bleeding”, “color, property, amount, and smell of drainage, such as feces”, and “abdominal bloating and abdominal distention”, thereby indirectly detecting the suture failure. When there is a possibility of suture failure, the state of the suture failure is checked in detail using the “computed tomography (CT)”.